To Be a Ninja…and a Parent
by a.plot.bunny
Summary: Post-Gaiden 6. Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Sarada, and Chouchou return to Konoha having glimpsed a threat greater than anyone has ever faced. Sarada and Chouchou are intimidated. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura are scared out of their minds.


A/N: Just started reading Gaiden, and I have to say that the new world is very dangerous – there's something stronger than Kaguya out there, and Naruto and Sasuke had a lot of heredity, training, and bad battle and personal experiences before they faced Kaguya. Throw in the fact that Boruto is a descendant of the Senju (Uzumaki) and the Uchiha (which originated from the Hyuuga as proven through Kaguya's Byakugan), and we have ourselves a target for the stronger-than-Kaguya being. Sarada is already getting assassination attempts, and those were thwarted because Sasuke, Naruto, _and_ Sakura were present. I had my doubts about Gaiden, but four chapters in and I'm suddenly very scared for Boruto. This fic is a manifestation of my sympathy for the Naruto generation and their kids.

* * *

Shikamaru and Shizune stood at the gates staring down the dirt road, not budging even when a light drizzle passed over. Waiting. Behind them, the village was livelier with the academy's graduation ceremony less than an hour away. Several passing children approached the unmoving Shikamaru and Shizune just to check if they were real. Not a few shinobi did the same as well.

"If he doesn't show up in time, I'm going to replace him as hokage," Shikamaru complained. His irritation was curbed by a sense of worry. Shizune laughed for their sake.

"You're going to give the hour-long speech at the ceremony then?" Shizune asked. At Shikamaru's face, she laughed again. Her watch glinted under the sun.

"Fifteen minutes," Shikamaru whispered. _Naruto_ _…_ _._

Two figures rose from the horizon. Three more followed – Sakura, Sarada, and Chouchou. As the group entered the gates, eyes turned and awed chatter rose. Some people stopped walking just to stare. Sasuke and Naruto led the group, side by side, images of power and ancient history emblazoned down the back of a cloak and in a crest between the shoulders. The Seventh Hokage and the head of the Uchiha. Shikamaru fell into place at Naruto's left with the crack of a smile at Naruto's tardiness even into adulthood, though a serious touch to Naruto's countenance gave the blonde a look of maturity.

"Hope you already have a speech prepared," Shikamaru greeted, "because I sure don't." He expected a playfully disappointed, "Advisor!" but then Naruto's eyes met Shikamaru's, and a restless energy beneath surface waters trembled out from blue eyes. Sasuke was resolutely looking forward, nobly ignoring stares and awed chatter as he did when he was a genin. Sakura was a mother bear over two girls with a crease in her brow that spoke of what she saw outside the gates, though her plain front inspired the two academy girls to mimic her as if nothing was wrong.

"Nanadaime?" Shikamaru spoke.

Sarada was excited to walk through the village with her father; she knew from the moving gazes on her and the group that her and her father's physical similarities were undeniable. Now there were witnesses. If Sarada should doubt for even a moment in her heritage, she had dozens of people to testify against her doubt. Shizune placed a hand on her and Chouchou's shoulders and subtletly steered them towards the academy.

"Take your test quick, girls," the woman encouraged with a smile, "though I have no doubt you will pass."

Chouchou accepted the invitation for a sense of normalcy with social ease that Sarada envied – the girl even offered chips for the short walk there. Sarada watched her dad's back as a part of a front line of three well-known Konoha shinobi heading for the Hokage Tower, and a surge of pride lit her heart. With a reassuring smile to Sakura, Sarada let go of her mother's hand and followed Chouchou and Shizune to the academy. Her parents were important. They were walking with the Nanadaime. And, from what Sarada had witnessed with her own eyes, they were scarily, admirably, _laughably_ strong.

Once in the privacy of the Hokage Tower's top floor, Naruto cracked. Long before becoming hokage, Naruto was the strongest person Shikamaru – and most everyone their generation – knew, and it hurt to see Shikamaru's role model vulnerable. "Start from the beginning," Shikamaru encouraged, and the room blended together – shuffling of feet, restless hands, Sasuke torn between comforting someone or staying out of the way. Naruto wasn't crying, but it amazed one to see how minute changes in the face and posture could strip the power away from a hokage. Sasuke lost his patience in seeing Naruto like this.

"There's someone stronger than Kaguya," he blurted.

Mostly monotonously, as usual. Sasuke laid out years' old suspicions and parts of which the past few days had shed light on; Sakura confirmed that the five Kages, Sasuke, and herself had kept the possibility of a Kaguya-like being a secret. The debriefing seemed to last only seconds, but when Shikamaru glanced at a clock, the graduation ceremony was already in full swing outside, and a crowd was anticipating a speech from the hokage. Naruto seemed hyper aware of it.

"We can push the ceremony to tomorrow," Shikamaru said softly.

Naruto didn't respond at first. "Our world has changed," his voice rose above a whisper, "and I'm going to send someones' children into it."

Sakura suddenly burst into sobs. Sasuke wrapped an arm around her.

"Including my own," Naruto finished.

Shikamaru felt a stab to his heart. He was wholly aware that his son Shikadai was graduating and acknowledged the bittersweet pride and anxiousness that came with it, but Naruto was also the hokage. He had to make the hard decisions and accept the consequences of them. He had a target painted on his back and on his family. Boruto was outside with friends counting down to the moment he'd become a ninja, and there was a being outside the village walls with power that rivalled Kaguya's. The corners of Shikamaru's eyes pricked with tears.

"Naruto…" Shikamaru murmured. Sasuke gently grabbed the back of Naruto's head with his free hand, and the blonde laid his forehead on Sasuke's shoulder and sucked in a stuttered breath with dry eyes. Shikamaru watched as his hokage silently, tearlessly cried. "Naruto…" Sasuke whispered. Applause roared from beyond the walls as Shino finished preparing the crowd for the hokage's speech.

Naruto lifted his head with pinched eyes and gave a weak exhale. Shikamaru's lips thinned. "We can…"

"No."

The strength of the word surprised Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Sakura, who watched Naruto roll his shoulders back and lift his chin with a deep breath. The minute angles of sorrow shifted back into place as determination, and Naruto transformed into both the inspiring knucklehead ninja of the past and the powerful hokage of the present right before their eyes. Motivational blue blazed under strong brows, and Naruto cleared his face with a smile as he stepped out onto the roof of the tower. From the shadows of the small room that opened to the roof, Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Sakura watched Naruto step up to a podium at the edge of the roof and greet the crowd below so openly friendly that even the nervous children of the graduating class relaxed. No one knew of the top secret information weighing down on the Nanadaime's mind and spirit.

"Every year," Naruto began with an inhale, "I look into the eyes of the academy's finest and ask them to cherish and protect the village." Naruto made eye contact with Boruto. "I'm not just a father – I'm the hokage." He looked out at the crowd with an energising smile. "But that's the same thing, isn't it? I'm the village's father. So I am equally proud for each graduate here today that he or she has become a shinobi. Graduates; you are entering a new world of responsibility and consequences. And change. Big or small, positive or not, the world of change is going to meet you. The impact you will have on it, however, is up to you."

In the shadows of the small room that opened to the roof, three shinobi shifted in restless worry. They could sense hidden anxiety came close to bleeding into Naruto's voice, but the blonde remained calm, smiling, and inspiring throughout the entire speech; what worry even he couldn't hold back peeked out in occasional foreshadow that no one but Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Sakura picked up on. For some reason, witnessing Naruto's strength only hurt them more.

With a brilliant smile from Naruto and a farewell wave of the hand, the crowd erupted in cheers and applause – many of the older of the crowd agreed that that had been Naruto's most inspiring graduation speech yet. Naruto's warm, sparkling impression remained convincing until he left the roof. A spark flashed between Sasuke and Naruto when they met eyes, and Sasuke consolingly embraced Naruto the moment the blonde stepped into the room. They understood most what facing Kaguya's power felt like, and Naruto had just seen off a generation into the shadow of someone stronger than the mother of all chakra. Shikamaru quietly closed the door behind his hokage and walked them to the tower's ground floor, Sakura trailing behind.

The untainted energy of graduation was more obvious when they were closer to the people celebrating outside. Naruto broke away from Sasuke to force another outward recovery, but he just didn't have the spirit to do it. Even with the fix of a cloak and a fresh run of fingers through hair, a broken heart couldn't be faked away. Sasuke could hear his own shattering as he watched Naruto suffer.

Hinata entered the Hokage Tower and tilted her head at the lone sight of Shikamaru and Team Seven. Urgency gripped her at her husband's face, and she walked up to him with the gentleness of approaching a hurt animal.

"What's wrong?" she asked softly. Naruto gratefully accepted the hand to his cheek and lifted melting blue eyes to her own.

"Ask me later," his voice cracked partways through. "Boruto has to have someone congratulate him…."

Something snapped in Sasuke, and the Uchiha stepped in. "Congratulate?" he repeated. "Stop hurting yourself like this, Naruto–!"

Sakura pinched her husband's arm and looked ready to step on his foot, too. Conscious of her monstrous strength, Sasuke reluctantly bit his tongue and backed off. It frustrated him that Sarada was the only one of her batch to truly glimpse the threat that awaited her generation, while Naruto, fully aware of the threats, had to _congratulate_ his only son for putting himself on the line as a full-fledged ninja. Hinata creased her brows at Naruto, aware a great difficulty had recently entered her husband's life that she did not know the details of, and she glanced back at the doors that would open to the cheery atmosphere of graduation and the smiles of their only son.

"Are you sure?" she asked. Sometimes, there was wisdom in not knowing.

A smile broke through on Naruto's face, as startling as a flower among dead grass. Naruto rested his lips on Hinata's forehead, his favourite spot, and let go. Hinata turned and passed through the tower doors to welcome her son into the world of shinobi with a proud smile and the ruffle of blonde hair. Himewari grasped her mother's hand after having been shown off by Boruto to his fellow graduates, and Hinata smiled at the confused girl, explaining that Boruto was experiencing older-sibling pride. Hinata didn't think of her husband's pained face for the rest of the day. She didn't think about what news he had to share with her until the two of them had the privacy of the night to hate each other and the world and grasp each other with cries and apologies that didn't change the dangers their children would face but would make it easier to let go when the time came.


End file.
